Along the western slope of the Sierra Madre other lines were built through Sonora, and then the Southern Pacific of Mexico, an American company, pushed these roads still further southward, opening new territory, not to the commerce of Central Mexico, but to that of the United States. And last of all, the line to Guadalajara left its easy grades and smooth roadbed to leap the _barrancas_ and climb down the mountains to achieve the contact with the Pacific at Manzanillo. A mighty hand, indeed, has nature had in the locating of Mexico’s railway lines, and with their connection to the United States and our trade. The mountainous character of the Mexican territory has upturned vast mineral resources, whose effect on the development of the country has been greater perhaps than any other single fact. These minerals gave the wealth of the Aztecs which tempted the Spaniards to take and to develop the country so thoroughly. They were drained for the three centuries that Spain ruled, and their exploitation shaped all the policy of the colonial régime. They were the greatest of the attractions to foreign capital at the beginning of the Diaz rule, and they paid most of the revenue of taxes upon which the material civilization of the Mexico of that day was built. It seems safe to promise that when there is lengthened peace again in Mexico, mining will take its place with the greatest industries of the country--although oil may still retain its present primacy when it, too, can spread out and develop itself. Mining camps and groups of mining camps dot the country, and whole distinct territories are devoted to the mining, here of silver, there of gold, there of copper, lead, etc. Indeed, the geography of Mexico has had a tremendous effect in the creation there of a country primarily rich in minerals as she is poor in agriculture. Oil is to-day the greatest single wealth of Mexico, but the other minerals have had and will again have their important bearing on her development. The mineral wealth (oil as well as metals) has as I have noted been the chief attraction which has brought foreign capital to Mexico. The Spaniards and to a lesser extent the Indians before them, mined the mountains of Mexico, but it remained to foreign enterprise in the time of Diaz to open up the great bonanza sections to scientific development. In the train of this development, came more foreign capital of every sort, for agriculture, for industry, for oil, and for public service investment. This foreign capital, developing Mexico’s latent wealth, opened her to the world, and brought forth her great promise of the future, even though it also gave to the revolutionists who overthrew Diaz a handy battle cry of anti-foreignism.